I read this article on Yahoo Health news and I think I should share this with you guys. So that we can ponder upon the article.

"The Army is investigating a popular workout booster ingredient called dimethylamylamine (DMAA) and its potential link to the deaths of two soldiers at US military bases. Americans spend more than $100 million a year on sports supplements containing DMAA, which is also known as “geranium extract” because it can supposedly be found in Chinese geraniums.

“This is the most dangerous ingredient sold today in supplements in the United States," Dr. Pieter Cohen, an internist at Harvard Medical School, told NPR.

Among the products that contain DMAA—a powerful stimulant—are Jack3d, advertised on the GNC website as providing “ultra-intense muscle-gorging strength, energy, power & endurance,” and OxyElite Pro".

I have tried Jack3d a couple of times and I did not experience any negative side effects. The only thing I can think of is the dosage.

Recently got banned in the UK. Don't know any details about the deaths or dosages used etc. though. The main reason it was banned was due to a woman dying recently after a marathon and it was though to be the DMAA in Jack3d that was linked to it. Marathons in general put a lot of pressure on your heart, I don't think any stimulant would be good to use for one.

mr_positive wrote:I have tried Jack3d a couple of times and I did not experience any negative side effects. The only thing I can think of is the dosage.

That doesn't prove anything. Just because one person has used it without harm doesn't prove it's safe. Nor does the fact that a person who died used it sometime prior to his or her death prove that it's dangerous--I have taken a number of drugs, and I will die sometime, but that doesn't prove that any of those drugs are dangerous. I assume that the Harvard internist who said it is the most dangerous ingredient has sound reasons for saying so that are not detailed in this quote. The key would be proof that a significantly higher number of people who took it died, compared to those who don't take it. I assume that it's not the first time that Army trainees have experienced sudden death.

Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.--Francis Chan

I know a very high number of people who have used Jack3d. I'd go as far as to say it was the most popular pre-workout in the UK when it was legal.

I also know a number of people who use DMAA as a recreational drug. All of them are still alive, despite consuming copious amounts of it along with a whole cocktail of other things.

It's a stimulant that carries the same risks as other stimulants. It's one of those things that gets abused by a few idiots, then the rest of us pay the price. The problem was that there was very little study done on it so nobody was sure what the safe dose was (although the norm among ravers was to take a MUCH higher dose than you got from a serving of Jack3d).

Also, most supps that had DMAA said not to use them in high temperatures, which is what the army guys did. Possibly the marathon runner too.

It sounds the same as other stimulants. If you have an underlying heart condition you didn't know about, and you take too high a dose of a stimulant for a period of time, there is a good chance it will kill you. With all those qualifiers, your odds of dying from taking that are quite slim.